Advice for my mom.....

bella27

Hi,

I think I already know the answer to this but I'm going to ask anyway. My Mom is 57 years old, was working full time as a home help officer, work she absolutely loved doing but since January, due to back issues, arthritis, fibromyalgia etc etc. she has been off work and receiving sickness benefit from social welfare.

The thing is that she is not getting paid from work while she is not working and she's finding it hard to survive on what social welfare pay, what are her options here?

I was thinking if she went back to work part time (maybe 20 hours or so?) would she still be eligible for sickness/invalidity benefit? I do know she would go back to work full time if she could but her body just wont allow her to do so (there are some days she cant even lift a plate off the table).

Is there anything in the HSE that will allow her to change jobs (keeping in mind she's not computer literate). We'll be getting onto citizens advice anyway, just to see what options there are but any information at all would be very helpful, thanks guys.

Lugh Ildanach

You can't work at all if you are on Illness Benefit.

If you want to work part-time, and if you have been in receipt of Illness Benefit for 6 months, you can apply for Partial Capacity Benefit, which allows you to work and keep some social welfare payment. There is however an assessment involved, and if you are assessed as having only a mild restriction, you can find not only your Partial Capacity Benefit refused, but your Illness Benefit stopped as well.

The rate of Partial Capacity Benefit is also lower than the Illness Benefit, the exact cut depends on how severe your restriction is categorised.

for details of PCB see here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/disability_and_illness/partial_capacity_benefit.html

bella27

Thanks for that info, I've never heard of that partial capacity benefit so its very helpful.

edellc

has she applied for a medical card

and if she is renting she may be able to claim rent allowance - that is means tested and is at the discretion of the cwo, as she is on IB and not the full JSA/JSB so with IB there is a possibility of her going back to work

As above she cant work while on IB but if she wants to find other work that is more suitable to her requirements she can transfer over to JSB (thus leaving her job) and start looking for more suitable work